Our clamshell, bare bones, half of our set up. One chunk of rebar for each leg, eight total.

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We use two, facing each other, with camo netting shade in between to make a living room. An EZ up frame without the canopy holds up. The tents and the kitchen are under the carports. This is a King Canopy carport from Sam's Club, 2003, very heavy. No pins to hold it together, just roof tension. We did replaced a few of the poles last year, they're not all that expensive and the company is in North Carolina (South?).

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The shorty legs are more to protect the pole end than for headroom. You can make shorty legs from wood, or just a cap or pad to protect the end of the pole and so it doesn't fill up with playa. Cardboard and duct tape will do the trick. An abundance of caution.

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Clamshell- Although I must say it looks cool what is the benefit for essentially pulling 4 legs out from a perfectly good carport?

I've had no trouble with Carports over the years, I assume the Clamshell is some attempt at making it more sturdy?

I usually use 2' rebar on every post, and duct tape the rebar to the pole. I also sometimes duct tape the joints (leaving a flap for easy removal). I can't think of a time in 9 years where I ever put a guy line on a Carport. Maybe one or two lines total, ever.

captain mcguiver wrote:Clamshell- Although I must say it looks cool what is the benefit for essentially pulling 4 legs out from a perfectly good carport?

I've had no trouble with Carports over the years, I assume the Clamshell is some attempt at making it more sturdy?

I usually use 2' rebar on every post, and duct tape the rebar to the pole. I also sometimes duct tape the joints (leaving a flap for easy removal). I can't think of a time in 9 years where I ever put a guy line on a Carport. Maybe one or two lines total, ever.

Never had one break, or even begin to fly away.

Purely personal preference. MyLarry intensely dislikes the duct tape set up, doesn't trust it as far as he thinks a good windstorm could throw it. The full standing carport did shudder more in the wind when we did that way, tore the hell out of the end walls in 2004. The clamshell is rock solid for us. Aerodynamics, the wind flows over it rather than slams into the sides. And we never have to mess with sidewalls now, although we can install one rolled up along the top of the long legs in case of rain.

Also makes our cozy shade configuration easier to manage, making three tent bedrooms, a dressing area, a kitchen and a living room. We use the X ropes as a base for privacy curtains too, it is all very functional. Lots of air flow in the middle shade area.

To each their own. We've had the carports for nine years, been happily clamshelling for seven. And we have spare legs if we ever need them.

Not many people shoot post-mortem pics. That big Emerald City thing in 2001 had a pretty spectacular partial failure when the winds kicked up mid-week, green shade cloth wrapped around flimsy prism frames of 1/2" EMT strapped to a few tiers of scaffold, but the only pics I can find show it standing more or less straight. A snorkel-lift operator w/ DPW got distracted for a day or two helping them stabilize the fucker.

After you click the "share" button, there an "option" link right under the short url. Click that, choose long url (make sure you're at 0:00 or the video will start somewhere later in) and your done. The youtube link on here will only work with the long url.

It's a camping trip in the desert, not the redemption of the fallen world - Cryptofishist

We are having the same problem with a camp mate, she insists on bringing a shade tent that she set up last year (that broke LAST YEAR). Our response 'If you bring it, we are throwing it away at a gas station along the way and you won't have any shade'

Problem solved.

Men occasionally stumble over the truth, but most of them pick themselves up and hurry off as if nothing ever happened. - Sir Winston Churchill

Participants making the trek out to Black Rock City were rewarded with as hard-packed a playa surface as we've seen since 1996, and consistently glorious weather throughout the event week with nary a single whiteout the entire time (a warning to first-timers: this is NOT normal).

"Be the change you wanna see in the world."

"Bears are crazy, Willie. They'll bite your head if you wear steak on it."

Participants making the trek out to Black Rock City were rewarded with as hard-packed a playa surface as we've seen since 1996, and consistently glorious weather throughout the event week with nary a single whiteout the entire time (a warning to first-timers: this is NOT normal).

Participants making the trek out to Black Rock City were rewarded with as hard-packed a playa surface as we've seen since 1996, and consistently glorious weather throughout the event week with nary a single whiteout the entire time (a warning to first-timers: this is NOT normal).

Storms every evening.

What's their duration? I don't mind the storms per se, but after a 12-hour continuous blow, I get a LITTLE stir-crazy.

Don't bore your friends with all your troubles. Tell your enemies instead, for they will delight in hearing about them.

What's their duration? I don't mind the storms per se, but after a 12-hour continuous blow, I get a LITTLE stir-crazy.

My GF says they last 2-4 hours on average.

Tonight (before sunset) she got lost walking from a trailer to her tent. It should have been a 100 foot walk. She basically realized something was wrong when she ended up at the man base instead of her tent. Took her an hour get to her tent. Serious dust folks...

Last night, she witnessed a DPW shade structure get pulled out of the ground (4x4 posts buried about 4 feet deep). This is the DPW design that survived the 07 & 08 storms, so there should have been no problem.

These storms are not to be taken lightly. If you are properly prepared, you will be fine. If 2011 was your first burn, please, for your own and others safety, talk to a multi-year veteran to see if your plans are reasonable...

Love Rice

Roach: "I feel like in this day and age, every girl should know how to build a flamethrower."

This is sounding less and less appealing. Seriously. And I've been doing hard core desert camping for over twenty years...but 40+ MPH winds every day and white outs with less than 100' visibility, combined with projectiles and shrapnel flying around, sounds challenging at best. Any online source for daily first-hand playa condition reports? Am planning to wait for the live video feed from Camp Envy once the event starts and then will assess whether or not I'm going, but am keenly interested in more preliminary information like the reports in this thread, thanks.